Tourism and Conflict Resolution

The provided document is an academic paper that covers various topics related to tourism and conflict resolution. It includes studies on the professional relationship between tour guides and tour operators, electronic word-of-mouth in consumer purchase decisions, conflict resolution strategies used by parents and adolescents during holiday planning, and more. The document also includes references to relevant research papers and articles from journals such as the Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, and Health Promotion International.

TOUR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................4
1.1Analysing the effects of emerging trends and growth of the developing trendson tourism
industry...................................................................................................................................4
M1: Carrying out research of one tour operator and giving details about its operations.......5
Task 2: Group Presentation........................................................................................................6
2.1 Assessing the stages as well as the timescales concerned in developing a holiday plan. 6
2.2 Evaluation of the suitable methods of contracting concerning various ingredients of
holiday tourism regulators......................................................................................................7
2.3 Calculation of the selling price of the concerned holiday plan.......................................8
Task 3 – Report Writing.............................................................................................................9
Introduction............................................................................................................................9
3.1 Evaluating the planning decisions concerning the design of a selected brochure..........12
3.2 Assessing the suitable alternatives to that of the orthodox brochure for a variety of the
tourism business...................................................................................................................13
3.3 Evaluation of the feasibility of variety of methods of distribution to be used in selling a
holiday plan..........................................................................................................................14
Conclusion............................................................................................................................15
Task 4.......................................................................................................................................16
4.1 Evaluation ofthe strategic decisions made by variety of tour operators.........................16
4.2 Comparing the tactical decisions has been taken lcb tours and Hotel Hilton in different
situations...............................................................................................................................16
Conclusion................................................................................................................................18
References................................................................................................................................19

Introduction
The study would revolve around the planning of holiday packages, effects of current and
recent trends on the tourism industry and all the different stages and effects that the tourism
industry goes through. The study would explore the lcb Tours which is a tour coordinator in
the United Kingdom. The tour and tourism industry would be explored from every
perspective and comparison would also be presented concerning the different holiday plans
and a variety of brochures and their effects on the customers. The study would include a
presentation and a report along with a marketing leaflet and a comparison of three different
brochures.

Task 1
1.1 Analysing the effects of emerging trends and growth of the developing trends on
tourism industry
Tour Operators has been observed to be greatly affected by the changing trends and
developments having a direct effect on the workings and business growth of the organisation.
The current trends such as integration, technology advancements, rise and fall of inflation,
effects of Brexit, low-cost carriers and increased environmental awareness greatly depends on
the type of operators the tourism firm belongs to such as inbound tour operators, domestic
tour operators, UK bound tour operators and specialist tour operators.
Further, the analysis would be done on the basis of the type of operators with respect to the
different trends and developments.
Inbound Tour Operators: The inbound tour operators are the ones who provide services to the
customers wishing to visit some foreign country and help the visitors in getting picked up
from the airport, arrange for activities, hire local guides, etc. The current trends such as
advancement in technology, low-cost carriers and fluctuation in inflation effects greatly to
this tour operator (Mwesiumo and Halpern, 2018).The advanced technology would make the
operations much easier and feasible while the low-cost carriers would lower its cost and the
fluctuation of inflation is something which would affect every business, and so it does to the
tour operator.
Domestic Tour Operator: This operator helps its citizens of the country to visit various
different tourist destinations. The trends which affect hugely to the operations of the company
include almost all the trends mentioned above. This is so because the changes in the current
trends in the country would have a direct effect on the workings and execution of the
companies.

UK Outbound Tour Operators: As the name indicates these tour operators takes the citizens
of the concerned country to some different or foreign country. The trends prevailing in the
UK would not affect much this business because the operations of this business get executed
mainly in different countries and which depends on the trends and developments of that
foreign country. But the fluctuation in the inflation rate and the effect of Brexit may be
applied for this type of tour operator.
Specialist Tour Operator: This operator of tourism deals in some particular or specialized
destinations and thus the trends and other advancements do not greatly affect this operator
though the advancement in technology affects all the four types of operators, as it is
applicable for all the citizens of the country. The current trends such as advancement in
technology, low-cost carriers and fluctuation in inflation greatly affect the business
performance of this tour operator.
M1: Carrying out research of one tour operator and giving details about its operations
Concerning the lcb tours, the company was founded by Mr Lim Cheng Boon. He started off
with a transportation business for delivering the office factory workers at their destinations
and ad a capability of analysing the market and identifying the increasing demand for public
transportation. This made him start with the inter-state express bus services. Gradually he
established his own business of travel in 1984 and the existence of Lim Cheng Boon Tourist
Sdn .Bhd came into existence. It could be commented that he carried a sheer market analysis
power due to which he recognized the growth of the tourism industry in the near future, and
this made him establish every single process, and stages of travelling which included
providing professional advice and guidance, planning and bookings and all other respective
actions were taken care of by the company. In the current time, the concerned company
provides services in about 50 destinations, including both domestic and overseas (Cetin and
Yarcan, 2017). All the current trends from the technological advancement to fluctuation in

inflation rate has been under consideration of the concerned organisation which has been the
reason behind its success. Many different such firms emerged up but could not grow in the
pace of the lcb tours, and thus it has been one of the oldest companies in providing such
services.
Task 2: Group Presentation
2.1 Assessing the stages as well as the timescales concerned in developing a holiday plan
Planning a holiday involves a number of stages and steps which if attended carefully and
accurately then the holiday plans provide the maximum benefit to the company and also the
services delivered carries a quality mark which builds up the goodwill of the concerned
company.
While planning for the holiday plan from the UK to France, some major stages have been
considered which included the following. The holiday plans should include time frames too,
as this would help in maintaining and calculating the costs and other relevant calculations for
the plan. The stages of holiday plan are as follows
a. Market Research: This step helps in finding out the current trends and workings of the
tourism industry. The demands of the customers get acknowledged, and the workings of the
competitors also get revealed. Through market research, it was revealed that France has been
gaining popularity as a holiday destination because of its culture and other attractions.
b. Planning and Scheduling: The plan would include the destinations such as Eiffel Tower,
Louvre Museum, Notre-Dame de, Palace of Versailles, 2 days in French Riviera, Marseille.
The hotels that would be in reach would include Le Roch Hotel and Spa, Maison Souquet,
Hotel des Grands Boulevards, and Hotels de Crillon. All these hotels are rated as 8.5 out of
10 in their services. The tour would begin on 24th December 2018 and end on 14th January
2019. The total number of people who could be a part of this holiday is 30.

c. Contracting: Planning would include the contracts with the transporters, accommodation,
dealers to hotels, etc. This has been done with no negotiation and on fixed rates.
d. Financial Evaluation and Pricing: The evaluation of the finances and the pricing has been
done with a thorough analysis of each of the factors that would contribute to the plan and the
pricing of the holiday for a couple has been estimated to be about 1000 pounds (Hollandand
Leslie, 2017).
e. Creating the brochure: This would include the most marketing thinking which would
attract a large number of people to the plan. The brochure has been framed with colourful and
attractive pictures and providing every single detail about the holiday.
f. Advertising: This has been done through various modes such as television, hoardings,
radio, emails to existing clients and distributing pamphlets.
g. Operation and Execution: The operations and the execution of the plan would be
conducted by the respective departmental heads, and they would report all the information to
the planner's head.
h. Post Tour Management: This requires that all the customers reach their homes back and
safe with no complaints in their heart or mind.
Timescale for the activities: The time taken for all the procedures to be completed would be
from the 24th December 2018 to 14th January 2019.
2.2 Evaluation of the suitable methods of contracting concerning various ingredients of
holiday tourism regulators
Planning the holiday would be done by following the steps as mentioned earlier and this has
been done quite smoothly but with proper analysis and accurate estimations. The holiday
planning also involves the analysis of the contracts that need to be considered with the
respective components so that the best suitable result is achieved. Contacting also needs to
consider some regulatory bodies which help in the smooth and clear functioning of the

contract namely, Association of British Travel Agents, Association of Independent Tour
Operators, Federation of Tour Operators, UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) etc. Generally,
there are three suitable ways of contracting which includes the fixed contract under which all
the conditions and the materials are fixed as per the contract. This is suitable for market
research, costing and creation of brochures contracts (Hsu et al. 2016).This is suitable for the
domestic tour operator along with the other three types of tour operators. The other way of
contracting is allocation which is suitable for the stages such as financial evaluation and
pricing, advertising and operation and execution. This is suitable for the out bound and
specialist tour operators. The last suitable and feasible contact is the ad hoc which is suitable
for post-tour management and planning and scheduling. This feasible contract is suitable for
the inbound tour operator.
2.3 Calculation of the selling price of the concerned holiday plan
The holiday plan from London to Paris can be seen to be comprised of various direct and
indirect costs including the fixed and variable costs, by the calculation of which the selling
price per visitor can be estimated as:
Variable costs
Visitors 45
Seasonal offers 1 %
Special offers 0.5 %
Fixed costs In Euro In GBP Subtotal
Room rent/visitor
€
90 £ 79.20 £ 3,564
Transport £ 12,000 £ 12,000
Guide £ 750
£
750
Exchange rate 0.88
Cost £ 16,314
Total Discount £ (Seasonal + Special Discount)

245
Selling price £ 20,392.50 (Cost + Mark up price)
Selling price after discount £ 20,147.79 (Selling price-Total Discount)
Selling price/ visitor £ 447.73
Source: Created by author
NB: Exchange rate from Euro to GBP= 0.88 (€1 = £0.88)
Mark up =25%

Task 3 – Report Writing
Introduction
Providing a holiday plan and get success in achieving the desired number of customers for
that plan, is something which hugely depends on the marketing of the plan and the
presentation of the plan. The brochures framed for the holiday plans play a vital role in
attracting the people towards a plan, and this includes a number of factors and considerations.
Considering the Hotel Hilton, it has been known for providing quality services for its
customers. The brochures of the concerned company have been quite effective and
responsive. Every organization tries to deliver the best pictures and destinations with a
complete and zestful of information in the brochures. The report would provide a discussion
on the selected three brochures of a holiday plan which would help in acknowledging the
pros and cons of the respective factors considered in the brochures.

Figure 1: Brochure 1
(Source: Virginholidays, 2018)

Figure 2: Brochure 2
(Source: Bob.org.uk, 2018)
Figure 3: Brochure 3
(Source: Anglowelsh.co.uk, 2018)

3.1 Evaluating the planning decisions concerning the design of a selected brochure.
On selecting the above three brochures which aim at the same destination and that is the
United Kingdom, the comparison of the designs and the planning decisions taken for each
brochure would be made. The comparison could be made on the following basis
a. Cost: The cost of the three brochures could be identified through the quality that has
been maintained by each one of it. The brochure 1 and brochure 2 appears to be more
colourful and attractive and also includes a bit higher cost than the brochure 3. The
cost for brochure 1 and 2 was close to 10 pounds while that of brochure 3 was around
8 pounds. The design of brochure 1 has followed a detailed and greenery view while
brochure 2 has tried to exploit the children while brochure 3 has been following a
traditional and cultural outlook and design. The printing quality of each of the
brochure has been quite royal and smooth. The brochures amounted the wastage to
11, 7 and 4 respectively. This reveals that brochure 3 has been the most effective
brochure out of the two other.
b. Deciding the format: The first brochure followed a twofold format while the other
two followed the booklet format. The format of the brochure does not impact much
the mentality of the customers (Mwesiumoet al. 2017). Be it booklet or a folding
format the content is something which matters the most. And the booklet anyhow
would contain more details than the folding format.
c. Target market and budget: Target markets determine the design and quality; the
budget determines the quality and design and volume required which has been
maintained by the hotel. Brochure 1 targets the youngsters and the adults while the
brochure 2 targets the children to get attracted and brochure 3 would target the
sophisticated and the cultural people. As per personal views, the idea of brochure 3 is
much more appealing and desirable as this would attract the classiest people along

with their children. The budget for brochure 1 was around 100 pounds while of
brochure 2 it was around 700 pounds and the brochure 3 budget was around 850
pounds. Brochure 3 would anyhow be much more pleasant and attractive for the
customers.
d. Determining print specifications: The destinations chosen for brochure 1 includes
some of the relaxing and enjoying your company types while brochure 2 includes the
destinations which would be joyful and exciting along with adventurous for the
children and the brochure 3 includes all the destination of England and Wales which
would reveal the culture and background of the country. Brochure 3 has rightly
framed its brochure by considering its destination and its attractions.
e. Timescales and stages of production:The time taken for the launch of the brochure
would be around 1 month. Brochure 3 would be the most beneficial one, as this would
be distributed before the Christmas which is the main festival of England and Wales
(Cetin and Yarcan, 2017).
3.2 Assessing the suitable alternatives to that of the orthodox brochure for a variety of
the tourism business.
The traditional brochure if compared with some of the new trending brochures and the way of
advertising those brochures includes a number of types of brochures such as E-brochure,
IPad, Outdoor media, Internet, Social Media, radio, press, Travel Fairs. These brochures
should be aptly chosen by the different types of the tour operators, and which results in the
effectiveness of the distribution of the brochure. The alternatives have been adopted by the
hotel which has been quite effective.
a. E-Brochure: It is applicable for all the four types of tour operators, but for the
domestic tour operators it would be much more effective and reliable.

b. Android Applications: This source of advertising the brochure would be feasible for
the inbound and the outbound tour operators. Even the specialist tour operators would
get the maximum benefit.
c. Outdoor media: This is the most suitable form of advertisement for the domestic tour
operators as the people would get to know the unknown places of their own country
or city which would become easy for them to explore (Fallon et al. 2014).
d. Social Media: this is again applicable to all the types of tour operators.
e. Radio: The most suitable type of operator would be the domestic tour operator, but
the other three would also get benefit from this source of advertisement.
f. Press: Again this is for all the tour operators.
g. Travel Fairs. The inbound, outbound and the specialist tour operators would be the
most beneficial ones for using this medium of advertisement.
3.3 Evaluation of the feasibility of variety of methods of distribution to be used in selling
a holiday plan
The method of distribution of the brochures decides the effectiveness of the distribution, and
this could be done through the following mediums
a. Direct Distribution: This would be most feasible for the domestic tour operator.
Knowing the unknown destinations residing in your own country or state would
attract more people.
b. Two Level Distribution: This is feasible for the specialist and the inbound operators.
The distribution through restaurants or other sources would reach out to the different
countries people too.
c. Social Network Website: This is suitable for all the operators as all the people in the
world are now on social sites (Snyderand Diesing, 2015).

d. Government Website: This is feasible for the outbound and inbound operators. This is
so because it provides the most authentic and applicable information.
e. Online Travel Agencies: Again this is suitable for all the operators as it is related to
tourism to be it within or outside the country.
f. Visitor Information Centre: This would be more feasible for the specialist and
outbound operators because it would be distributed to selected people.
g. Review sites: All the operators would get a positive response through this
advertisement or distribution centre.
Hotel Hilton has adopted all the mediums of distribution and has achieved its targets.
Conclusion
On completion of the report and assessing various factors concerning the planning and
distribution of a brochure along with the comparison of three types of brochures has revealed
that a sheer analysis of all the factors such as the destinations that are targeted, targeted
customers, a section of the society, budget and everything is to be considered. The brochure 3
in the above comparison has won the competition because of its inclusion of all the factors in
the planning of the brochure (Chenet al. 2015).

Task 4
4.1 Evaluation ofthe strategic decisions made by variety of tour operators
Due to the different ways of functioning and different targeting customers of the different
types of operators, there exist different strategic decision makings.
The pricing strategies have been adopted by all the operators which may include the
marketing price strategy or the customer pricing strategy. Surcharge policy is mainly adopted
by the domestic tour operator. Positioning and image branding is mainly followed by the
outbound and inbound operators. Even the specialist operators get hugely benefited by this
strategy or decision making (Elliott et al. 2016). The decision of choice of product in respect
of customer portfolio acts like the main ingredient of all the types of operators. Distribution
decisions are made in respect of targeted customers.
4.2 Comparing the tactical decisions has been taken lcb tours and Hotel Hilton in
different situations
Considering the lcb tour and the hotel Hilton for tactical decisions made by the two
respective organizations.
Tactical Pricing: Once lcb tours took a tactical decision was taken in respect of raising the
prices of the travel which took the growth of the business in a downturn, but it was soon
realised and checked. On the other hand, Hilton has also been observed in doing so, the prices
were raised which resulted in the loss of customers (tactical pricing) (Anantamongkolkulet al.
2017).
Tactical Responses: The other tactical decision was made considering the responses of the
customers when the company was at its top position, and the company believed that the
success is because of its quality and some cost-cutting was done through un-employing the
employees who marked a downfall of the company with huge customer losing. Once the

hotel took the feedback of the customers very lightly and did not try to meet the customers'
expectations which resulted in a downfall of the sales
Tactical Marketing: The adoption of over advertising through hoardings just added to the cost
of the company, and this was checked soon. The overconfidence of the hotel that it could
survive without marketing its product, just on the basis of its goodwill, saw the tactical
marketing decision-making effects (Mischelet al. 2014).

Conclusion
Overall the study has helped in getting knowledge about the tourism business and the
consideration of various factors in executing a holiday plan has also been gathered. The study
has revealed many fact full and interesting details about touring and tourism industry. The
study revolved around the planning of holiday packages, effects of current and recent trends
on the tourism industry and all the different stages and effects that the tourism industry goes
through. The study also explored the lcb Tours which is a tour coordinator in the United
Kingdom.

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